“When people speak of resistance in France” (and the entire dialogue that follows this): Michèle Moët-Agniel and Anise Postel-Vinay, author interview, January 9, 2016, Paris.
The best way to sidestep a conversational minefield: Historian Robert O. Paxton explored this topic in Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972), 38–45. Philip Nord in France 1940: Defending the Republic (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015) wrote that while several historians estimate that 2 percent of France’s population were resisters, there was a broader “society of rescue” that makes that figure larger than has been assumed. Furthermore, Nord wrote that this larger resistance fed off popular support for a liberated—and new—France. Ronald C. Rosbottom explored the quandaries of defining the nature and extent of resistance in chapter 6 of his When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940–1944 (New York: Little, Brown, 2015). John F. Sweets illustrated how the French were “reacting to conditions of extraordinary stress” in Choices in Vichy France: The French Under Nazi Occupation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994). Sweets argued that there may never be a satisfactory statistical representation of resistance in France and that we should go beyond the issue of precise headcounts and focus more on an appreciation of the period’s atmosphere. Robert Gildea’s Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2015) balanced the challenges of representing the resistance in French history with the voices of those who fought to liberate France from the Nazis in World War II. All these historians explored the notion of myth in the resistance narrative, some citing Marcel Ophüls’s documentary film The Sorrow and the Pity (1969) as part of the basis for their skepticism. At any rate, the resistance is a topic that’s often polarizing and subject to rich debate.
“A handful of wretches”: Charles de Gaulle, speech to French nationals at London’s Albert Hall, November 15, 1941, Charles de Gaulle Foundation, www.charles-de-gaulle.org/pages/l-homme/accueil/discours/pendant-la-guerre-1940-1946/discours-de-l-albert-hall-londres-11-novembre-1941.php.
“There was a movement”: Anise Postel-Vinay, author interview, January 9, 2016, Paris.
Another body of research: Some of this work includes “Le programme du CNR dans la dynamique de construction de la nation résistante,” Histoire@Politique no. 24, 2014, 5–23, and “Les comportements des civils face aux aviateurs tombés en France, en Angleterre et en Allemagne, 1940–1945,” in Les comportements collectifs en France et dans l’Europe allemande, ed. Peter Laborie and François Marcot (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2015). Both pieces are by Claire Andrieu, professor of contemporary history at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.
Moët-Agniel, for example, began sneaking: Michèle Moët-Agniel, author interview, January 9, 2016, Paris.
One German prosecutor mused: Margaret Collins Weitz, Sisters in the Resistance: How Women Fought to Free France, 1940–1945 (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1995), loc. 18.
Charming smiles concealed: Robert Gildea wrote about how easy it was for women to move around without suspicion in Fighters in the Shadows, 145.
“I don’t like the word heroism”: Geneviève de Gaulle spoke at length with interviewer Caroline Glorion about this in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz: Résistances (Paris: Plon, 1997), 11.
Geneviève’s life was marked by (and the dialogue that follows): Michèle Moët-Agniel and Anise Postel-Vinay, author interview, January 9, 2016, Paris.
Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz shared her memories of Philippe Pétain’s June 17, 1940, radio address with journalist Caroline Glorion in the late 1990s. She told Glorion that that was the day she “took up the proverbial cross” in her heart and vowed to fight back. “I felt like I had been burned by a hot iron,” she told Glorion. A few years later, Anthonioz admitted to filmmaker Maia Weschler that although she wanted to do battle, she didn’t know where to begin. Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 20–21. Weschler, Sisters in Resistance (Women Make Movies, 2000).
The original version of Pétain’s speech employed the more awkward request to “try to stop fighting.” The language was tightened up for the broadcast so that there could be no mistaking that Pétain wanted the country to quit. Pétain, “Discours du 17 juin 1940 du maréchal Pétain,” Charles de Gaulle Foundation website. You can also listen to the speech in its entirety on YouTube by searching for “Petain, June 17.”
There are several accounts of the Fall of France, many of them focused on the specific battles and military maneuvers used within that devastating five-week conflict. One of the best and most recent accounts of that fall is captured in the first chapter of Ronald Rosbottom’s fine book on the occupation, When Paris Went Dark. Filmmaker Maia Weschler was able to capture the country’s swift fall in her documentary Sisters in Resistance, with vintage footage of grown men crying in the streets as they watch the Nazis roll into the capital in tanks.
tired and tangled ribbons: “French Are Still Fighting: Armies Cut into Four Ribbons a Spokesman Asserts,” New York Times, June 18, 1940.
government fled Paris for Bordeaux . . . Reynaud resigned . . . Pétain replaced him: Paxton, Vichy France, 6.
Almost four million people fled the Paris area alone during the Battle of France, leaving the capital to look like an empty movie set, according to several memoirists. There are countless stories in newspapers about the plight of refugees during that time. Among them: “Refugee Migration Is Spur to Red Cross,” New York Times, May 21, 1940; “Fate of Boulogne Not Yet Clarified,” New York Times, May 25, 1940; “Tours Is Jammed; Refugees Pitiful,” New York Times, June 14, 1940; “French Go to Switzerland; First Refugees Arrive from the Upper Doubs Valley,” New York Times, June 17, 1940; “The International Situation; the Plight of France,” New York Times, June 17, 1940. Ronald Rosbottom in When Paris Went Dark wrote that the exodus forged “a profound sense of embarrassment, self-abasement, guilt and felt loss of masculine superiority that would mark the years of the Occupation” (loc. 716).
Geneviève’s reaction to Pétain’s call for an armistice is captured by Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz (20–21), and in historian Frédérique Neau-Dufour’s biography Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz: L’autre de Gaulle (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2004), 47. Neau-Dufour’s account is based on extra documentary footage taken by Weschler and stored in the Charles de Gaulle Foundation’s archives at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, France.
Two hours later, the German advance: The BBC’s website includes a British soldier’s clippings from French newspapers about the bombing of Rennes, the details of which are included in this passage. “Rennes, Brittany, France, June 1940: After Dunkirk, Escaping to the West,” Sergeant George Fitzpatrick via the BBC, December 3, 2005.
The de Gaulle background comes from a richly detailed biography of the family written by French journalist Christine Clerc. Les de Gaulle: Une Famille Française (Paris: Le Grand Livre du Mois, 2000) draws from forty interviews with surviving members of the family, including ones with Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz and her brother, Roger de Gaulle. The specific information about the de Gaulle line prior to Henri de Gaulle can be found on page 20. Details about Henri and Jeanne de Gaulle can be found on pages 28–52.
“Many years after this war”: Letter from Charles de Gaulle to Rémy Roure, cited by Edmond Pognon in De Gaulle et l’armée (Paris: Plon-Espoir, 1976), 53.
“if [Charles] wishes”: Jean Lacouture, De Gaulle: The Rebel, 1890–1944 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1993), 10.
For details about Xavier de Gaulle, his courtship of Germaine Gourdon, their marriage, and the family’s early life, see Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 13–19; Neau-Dufour, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 19–42.
Neau-Dufour writes about Germaine and Xavier’s brief time in Saint-Jean-de-Valériscle in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 25–26. The town’s history and heritage came from its website: http://saintjeandevaleriscle.com. Background on the geography and the area’s onions came from www.cevennes-tourisme.fr/uk/il4-cevennes,discover_p14-geography.aspx and www.cevennes-tourisme.fr/uk/il4-cevennes,activites_p191-sweet-onion-of-the-cevennes.aspx. Christine Clerc writes about Xavier’s joy in the landscapes and Geneviève’s later disappointment in them in Les de Gaulle, 105–6.
See Neau-Dufour, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 26–39, for an account of the de Gaulle family’s time in the Saarland.
See Clerc, Les de Gaulle, 118–20 and 184–86, for an account of how Germaine’s unexpected death impacted the family. Also see Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 15–16, and Neau-Dufour, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 35–37. Geneviève also wrote about the death, the train ride to the funeral, and her grandmother’s embroidered daisies in her memoir The Dawn of Hope: A Memoir of Ravensbrück (New York: Arcade, 1999), Kindle ed., loc. 159–62.
Clerc wrote about Jeanne’s visits to the Saarland to help and how it helped Geneviève get to know her grandmother in Les de Gaulle, 124.
Geneviève wrote about the first Christmas without her mother in Dawn of Hope, loc. 198–202.
Clerc wrote about the interactions between Charles and Xavier de Gaulle after Germaine’s death in Les de Gaulle, 124–25, and then about Anne, 125–26.
Glorion wrote about Geneviève’s love of school and introduction to Mein Kampf in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 16–17, and Neau-Dufour did the same in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 37–38.
Lacouture spins a fascinating tale about how and why de Gaulle believed tanks would lead the way in modern warfare. It ends with Pétain publicly dismissing his ideas and Germany studying them intently. Lacouture, De Gaulle: The Rebel, 129–38.
For background on the Saarland plebiscite, see “The Saar Struggle,” New York Times, November 20, 1934. For details on the Saar vote, see “Saar Is Occupied by Foreign Army,” New York Times, December 23, 1934; “Postponing Vote Weighed in Saar,” New York Times, January 6, 1935; “Fair Vote Predicted by Miss Wambaugh: Woman Adviser on Plebiscite in Saar Declares League Will Prove Its Effectiveness,” New York Times, January 13, 1935; “Jews ‘Advised to Leave’ Saar,” New York Times, January 13, 1935; “Braun Threatens Protest,” New York Times, January 14, 1935; “Frick Ready to Take Command of Saar; Little Mercy Seen for Reich Emigres,” New York Times, January 15, 1935; “The Council’s Resolution,” New York Times, January 18, 1935.
Glorion writes about Xavier de Gaulle’s failed attempts to get locals to vote against the Third Reich and his return home on the day of the vote in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 17–18.
Xavier de Gaulle and his kin: Neau-Dufour, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 38–39.
Back in Germany Adolf Hitler celebrated the French exit: “Sees Way Clear for Amity,” New York Times, March 2, 1935.
Neau-Dufour wrote about the family’s return to France, Geneviève and Jacqueline’s time in Metz, and their relations with their extended relatives in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 38–39.
Glorion talked to Geneviève about her time with her Uncle Charles in Metz in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 18–19.
Neau-Dufour wrote about the death of Geneviève’s sister in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 40–41.
Clerc spoke with Geneviève about the funeral and her father’s and uncles’ discussion about the Munich Accord in Les de Gaulle, 143.
Xavier was called up to serve as a reservist: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 20.
If there was to be a last stand in France: Paxton, Vichy France, 6.
Glorion explained how Xavier awaited orders in the three-room house with his family in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 20–21. In this passage, Geneviève emerges as the diligent caretaker and comforter of her ailing grandmother. Clerc, meanwhile, recounted how Geneviève’s grandmother fled Le Havre to see her sons before war separated them in Les de Gaulle, 152. See the following link for background on the bombing of Le Havre: www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=shtasel-memories.pdf&site=15.
See Lacouture’s De Gaulle: The Rebel for an explanation of the Brittany strategy, known as the “Breton redoubt,” on pages 189–90. De Gaulle then bids his wife and daughters farewell and warns them to leave at the first sign of trouble on page 201. Lacouture describes how Yvonne and the family got out of France beginning on page 257.
Various sources include the story of the de Gaulle family’s forty-mile retreat to safety, which ended with the news that Charles de Gaulle encouraged France to keep fighting on BBC radio. Clerc, Les de Gaulle, 152–53; Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 21–22; Neau-Dufour, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 48–49.
“All of his family”: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 23.
There are different accounts of Xavier’s arrest. Some say he was arrested on June 18. Others say it happened on June 19. Glorion wrote about Xavier’s arrest and the family’s return to their apartment in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz on page 23. Xavier’s sister, Marie-Agnès Cailliau de Gaulle, wrote that the arrest happened “steps away” from her ailing mother, Jeanne, in her memoir, Souvenirs personnels (Paris: Parole et Silence, 2006), 44.
never saw herself as the gun-toting warrior: Weschler, Sisters in Resistance.
difficult for her to know how to channel her exasperation about the war into something useful: Weschler, Sisters in Resistance.
as she ambled around Paimpont’s quiet streets: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 24.
Geneviève explained that she turned her back on Nazi officers because she didn’t want to submit to a conqueror’s rules if they weren’t really a conqueror. Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 24.
Occupation conditions are well described in several works, including Simone de Beauvoir’s Wartime Diary, trans. Anne Deing Cordero, ed. Margaret A. Simons and Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008); Jean Guéhenno’s Journal des années noires, 1940–1941 (Paris: Gallimard, 1947); and Agnès Humbert’s Résistance: A Frenchwoman’s Journal of the War (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009). But this passage was drawn from the vivid recollections Michèle Moët-Agniel shared with me on January 9, 2016.
Rosbottom’s When Paris Went Dark references the “Tips for the Occupied” tract, as does Caroline Moorehead on page 53 of A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship and Resistance in Occupied France (New York: Harper, 2011).
The German presence became so overwhelming: Paxton captured the political complexity of occupied France in Vichy France on pages 38–45.
Not everyone bought the lies: Historian Sudhir Hazareesingh included several letters written to General de Gaulle in his In the Shadow of the General: Modern France and the Myth of De Gaulle (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). The ones I cite were used on page 16 of his book.
Glorion said Geneviève spent a lot of time that summer ruminating and walking through the forests of central Brittany. She was worried about returning to school that August in the midst of all the upheaval (Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 25). It’s worth noting that long, solitary walks were also a pastime of her father’s, who roamed the Saar forests lost in thought after his wife passed away (Neau-Dufour, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 33).
“I have confidence he will succeed”: “Jeanne de Gaulle,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 8 (1971): 6. Geneviève recounted her grandmother’s final moments in Dawn of Hope, 257–64.
Clerc captured the story of Jeanne de Gaulle’s death, funeral, and the aftermath in Les de Gaulle, 153–54.
“I enter today on the path of collaboration”: Pétain’s October 31, 1940, speech is cited in Jean Thouvenin’s Avec Pétain: Une nouvelle page d’histoire de France (Paris: Sequana, 1940), 30.
“I moan about the mark this leaves on your family name” and the final months of Geneviève’s time in Rennes: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 25–26. Geneviève also wrote about her experience in “Défense de la France,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 27.
Madeleine de Gaulle’s background is captured in Clerc’s Les de Gaulle, 178–79. Glorion fixed Geneviève’s arrival at her home in Paris at the beginning of the 1941–1942 school year on page 26 of Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz. Geneviève said she moved to Paris in October 1941 in “Défense de la France,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 27.
Pierre had been working in Lyon . . . and Xavier’s release, recuperation: Clerc, Les de Gaulle, 164–65.
Tillion speaks of the early days of founding the Musée de l’Homme network in Weschler’s documentary Sisters in Resistance, 11:10–14:57; in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz and Germaine Tillion, Dialogues: D’après les entretiens filmés par Jacques Kebadian et Isabelle Anthonioz Gaggini (Paris: Plon, 2015), 29–33; and in Jean Lacouture’s Le témoignage est un combat: Une biographie de Germaine Tillion (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2000), 70–72. Lacouture writes about the Tillion family’s background in Le témoignage on pages 13–16.
“Mothers of France”: Pétain is quoted in Collins Weitz’s Sisters in the Resistance, loc. 717.
One resister, Agnès Humbert: Humbert, Résistance, 33.
Geneviève wrote about her activities and the searches of her aunt’s apartment in “Défense de la France,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 27–28. Geneviève tells the story again to Glorion in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, pages 27–29. The detail about Chantal’s Métro ticket collection is captured in Clerc’s Les de Gaulle, pages 176–77, but in this account Chantal worried about becoming head of the family too.
Geneviève recalls going to Fresnes with Babeth in en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 28.
“I had no qualifications”: Anthonioz and Tillion, Dialogues, 30.
Hitler spoke to the Reichstag on January 30, 1939, in what has become known as “The Jewish Question” speech. Excerpts of that speech are online at: www.holocaustresearchproject.org/holoprelude/jewishquestion.html.
Geneviève had been disturbed by the führer’s viewpoint: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 13.
Rosbottom offered this time line of anti-Semitic policies in his “Chronology of the Occupation of Paris” at the beginning of When Paris Went Dark.
On the evening of July 16, 1942: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 26–27; Anthonioz and Tillion, Dialogues, 85–86.
British intelligence officers: Sweets, Choices in Vichy France, 162–70.
“A lot of people were afraid”: Anthonioz and Tillion, Dialogues, 86–87.
the Vichy government, at Germany’s urging: Sweets, Choices in Vichy France, 169.
Glorion recounted Geneviève’s first acts and encounters in clandestine work in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 31–33.
Tillion told Lacouture about the day she was captured in Le témoignage, 117–27.
“I am a free Frenchman”: Lacouture, De Gaulle: The Rebel, 266–67.
Some of the background on the maquis is culled from Charles de Gaulle’s War Memoirs, excerpted in en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 43 (1972): 7–26.
Geneviève wrote about her time in the maquis and being searched and questioned by Germans while en route to Paris in “Défense de la France,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 28–29.
The early days of Défense de la France are captured in Olivier Wieviorka’s Une certaine idée de la Résistance: Défense de la France, 1940–1949 (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1995), 9–54.
Geneviève writes that she came into contact with DF shortly after her return to Paris from the South in en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 30.
The fate of the de Gaulle family during this period is captured by Marie-Agnès Cailliau de Gaulle in Souvenirs personnels, 52–56. Geneviève also writes about the family’s increasing sense of danger in en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 28. Clerc adds to the story in Les de Gaulle, 163–64 and 179–82.
In March 2016, a team of French historians unveiled secret service archives from World War II, which included this letter from Geneviève to her uncle. The story was widely covered in international media, which included a photograph of the first few pages of the letter.
She waited for a response: Various accounts say that Geneviève did not hear her uncle’s advice—which was to stay in France—until either after her arrest or after the war.
The background on Geneviève converting DF to Gaullists is covered in Wieviorka’s Une certaine idée, 206–8.
At the top of the story (and the following description of the article): Gallia/Geneviève de Gaulle, “Charles de Gaulle,” Défense de la France, June 20, 1943, 1.
“De Gaulle and French Independence”: Gallia/Geneviève de Gaulle, “De Gaulle et l’indépendance française,” Défense de la France, July 5, 1943, 1.
“it was like seeing Jesus for the first time”: cited in Wieviorka, Une certaine idée, 186.
Lacouture covers Moulin’s Caluire meeting and the aftermath in De Gaulle: The Rebel, 482–83.
“Jeered at, savagely beaten”: Laure Moulin, Jean Moulin (Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1982). Laure Moulin’s words about her brother are some of the most widely quoted about him. French minister of culture André Malraux used them in his December 19, 1964, speech celebrating the transfer of Jean Moulin’s ashes to the Panthéon, the English language transcript of which can be found here: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/global-studies-and-languages/21g-053-understanding-contemporary-french-politics-spring-2014/readings/MIT21G_053S14_Andre.pdf.
Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt talked to Weschler about her background and her entrance into the resistance in Sisters in Resistance. She wrote about her interactions with Jean Moulin in a short memoir called “Surviving Ravensbrück: Forgive Don’t Forget,” 3–4, http://liberalarts.utexas.edu/france-ut/_files/pdf/resources/Pery.pdf.
Geneviève wrote about her increased responsibilities in “Défense de la France,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 30. Wieviorka also wrote about this in Une certaine idée, 133–34.
Hitler had begun 1943: “Hitler Foresees Hardship, Victory,” New York Times, January 2, 1943, 1.
By the end of January: “Axis Is Suffering Strain, Says BEW,” New York Times, January 1, 1943, 4; “R.A.F. Bombers Raid in Western Germany,” New York Times, January 2, 1943, 4; “Shortage of Labor in Reich Analyzed,” New York Times, January 4, 1943, 6; “Germans Fear Pinch in North Africa Loss,” New York Times, January 5, 1943, 9; “New British ‘Slow Bomb’ Increases Destruction,” New York Times, January 7, 1943, 8; “Nazis’ Dodges Suggest a New Low in Morale,” New York Times, January 10, 1943, 6; “Decline of Luftwaffe Apparent,” New York Times, January 10, 1943, E5; “Nazi Warns Reich of Peril in Russia,” New York Times, January 13, 1943, 1; “More Home Effort Asked by Goebbels,” New York Times, January 14, 1943, 4; “Pilots of 8 Nations Pound Nazi Europe,” New York Times, January 14, 1943, 5; “Berlin Warns Ringed Nazis at Stalingrad Not to Despair, for ‘Führer Knows Best,’ ” New York Times, January 16, 1943, 2; Ronald Rosbottom also discussed the changing tide in chapter 8 of When Paris Went Dark.
Within the first three months of 1943: “532 Nazis Listed as Slain in France,” New York Times, March 12, 1943, 5.
DF embraced the defiant spirit (and the narrative that follows): Geneviève de Gaulle wrote about July 14, 1943, in “Défense de la France,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 44 (1972): 30–31; “14 Juillet,” Défense de la France, July 14, 1943, 1; “Français, libérez-vous de la crainte,” Défense de la France, July 14, 1943, 1.
Wieviorka writes about Marongin in Une certaine idée, 336.
Geneviève wrote about the day of her arrest in “Prise dans une souricière,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 45 (1972): 27–28.
Geneviève told Glorion about her transfer to the Gestapo headquarters and then to Fresnes Prison in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 36–37.
There are several prisoner testimonies about Fresnes Prison, some of them more positive than others, depending on where a given source may have been incarcerated before. Marie-Agnès Cailliau de Gaulle shared descriptions of Fresnes in Souvenirs personnels, 59–64, and with Clerc in Les de Gaulle, 184; Geneviève spoke with Glorion about Fresnes in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 37–38; Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt also wrote about Fresnes in “Surviving Ravensbrück: ‘Forgive, Don’t Forget’; A Memoir by Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt,” France-University of Texas Institute online document archive, 5, https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/france-ut/_files/pdf/resources/Pery.pdf.
“There was life in that cell”: Geneviève told Glorion in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 38.
Marie-Agnès wrote about her reunion with Geneviève in Souvenirs personnels, 65; Clerc expanded the story in Les de Gaulle, 183.
Anne Fernier de Seynes-Larlenque (Nanette) wrote about sharing a cell with Geneviève and her “seriousness of purpose” in “Souvenirs,” Voix et Visages, March–April 2002, 14.
Marie-Agnès also wrote about how they would talk to each other in the mornings after guards left in Souvenirs personnels, 66.
Geneviève spoke about her good fortune to share packages with Marie-Agnès in Anthonioz and Tillion, Dialogues, 77–78.
Clerc wrote about how the prison regime began to harden against the Fresnes internees in Les de Gaulle, 183.
Anise Postel-Vinay (née Girard) wrote about her attempted escape in Vivre (Paris: Grasset, 2015), 33–36. She also shared her memories of meeting Germaine Tillion face-to-face on the day they were deported to Ravensbrück with Weschler in Sisters in Resistance.
Although there was certainly drama involved in forging a united French resistance, the growing support for the country’s underground movement is captured in the following articles: “Gaullists Invite Wide Adherence,” New York Times, January 16, 1943, 3; “Frenchmen in Algiers Work Out Their Destiny,” New York Times, January 24, 1943, E3; “De Gaulle Called Choice of France,” New York Times, February 2, 1943, 5; “France’s Resistance Gains, Says de Gaulle,” New York Times, February 4, 1943, 4; “Restore Republic de Gaulle Insists,” New York Times, February 10, 1943, 7; “Allies Study Plan for French Unity,” New York Times, February 28, 1943, 7; “De Gaulle Orders Risings by the French,” New York Times, March 13, 1943, 3; “Resistance Groups in France Are Linked,” New York Times, May 27, 1943, 5; “De Gaulle Calls for ‘4th Republic,’” New York Times, June 7, 1943, 3; “France Rallying to Africa Regime,” New York Times, June 22, 1944, 4; “France Now Led by Underground,” New York Times, September 3, 1943, 6; “De Gaullists in Lead in French Assembly,” New York Times, October 30, 1943, 7. The country sensed the turning tide in “Frenchmen Sure of Landings Soon,” New York Times, September 6, 1943, 4. Julius Ritter’s killing was reported in “German Labor Chief in France Is Killed,” New York Times, September 29, 1943, 10; French hatred of Germans is spelled out in “French Unity Seen in Hating Germans,” New York Times, February 8, 1943, 4; “French Resistance to Hitler Spreads,” New York Times, March 10, 1943, 7; “All France Talking About Allied Invasion,” New York Times, August 22, 1943, 27; “Underground Busy in Cities in France,” New York Times, December 6, 1943, 11; “Nazi Troops Battle Saboteurs in France,” New York Times, December 19, 1943, 34.
Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt told Weschler about her arrest and incarceration in Sisters in Resistance and wrote about it in “Forgive, Don’t Forget,” 5–6. According to Neau-Dufour, Pery passed along General de Gaulle’s advice to his niece after hearing him talk about it on the BBC before her arrest (Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 73).
Another one of Geneviève’s cellmates, Thérèse Grospiron-Verschuren, described their day-to-day life and cohorts in Fresnes in “Geneviève à Fresnes,” Voix et Visages 279, March–April 2002, 7–8.
Geneviève wrote about All Saints’ Day in Fresnes in Dawn of Hope, loc. 151–55.
Mrs. Roosevelt’s address was reported in “Deliverance Near, French Are Told,” New York Times, December 25, 1943.
Pery wrote about Christmas Eve in “Forgive, Don’t Forget,” 5.
Hitler’s address to his country was reported in “Hitler Changes Tune in New Year Message,” New York Times, January 1, 1944, 4.
Giles’s retort is covered in “Tells France to ‘Stand By,’” New York Times, January 2, 1944, 19.
The Nazis fire back with “Pétain in Pledge to Nazi,” New York Times, January 2, 1944, 13, before calling for a “Tighter Rein on France,” New York Times, January 3, 1944, 8.
The negotiations about the Free French role in the liberation are discussed in “Churchill May See de Gaulle Shortly,” New York Times, January 6, 1944, 6; “Frenchmen Renew Allied Aid Pleas,” New York Times, January 11, 1944, 6; “French Want Role in Allied Invasion,” New York Times, January 6, 1944, 4.
Fernier shared the account of prisoners trying to stay on top of events and the Gaulotov joke in “Souvenirs,” Voix et Visages, March–April 2002, 14.
Marie-Agnès wrote about Alfred’s deportation in Souvenirs personnels, 69.
Geneviève wrote about being deported from Fresnes in “Prise dans une souricière,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 45 (1972): 28–29, and in Dawn of Hope, loc. 396–418. She told Glorion about the attempts to escape and the messages thrown out the window in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 39–40.
Sarah Helm wrote about Geneviève singing on the train and the two stops during the journey in Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women (New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2014), Kindle ed., loc. 7,505.
In Anthonioz and Tillion’s Dialogues, there is a picture of Geneviève’s bread-ration bag with her journey stitched onto it.
Jack G. Morrison wrote about Hitler’s misogyny in Ravensbrück: Everyday Life in a Women’s Concentration Camp, 1939–1945 (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 2000), 2–7.
Helm chronicled the Reich’s growing need for a female-only camp and the protest by Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ravensbrück, loc. 526, 557–64.
Morrison discussed why Nazi officials chose the area around Lake Schwedt for the camp, Ravensbrück, 14–16. Helm further describes the area and talks about how the proposed camp was viewed, Ravensbrück, loc. 629–52.
Morrison wrote about the camp’s first day, Ravensbrück, 16.
Helm charted how the town’s sentiment toward the deportees changed over time in Ravensbrück.
Geneviève described the arrival at Ravensbrück in “Prise dans une souricière,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 45 (1972): 29. She also wrote about the arrival in Dawn of Hope, loc. 116–20, 424–28. Helm wrote about the 27,000 convoy’s arrival at the camp gates in Ravensbrück, loc. 7,515–24.
Various resister memoirs recall the skeletal women they encountered upon their arrival. Some use the less flattering term monsters to describe them, while others call them phantoms, beings, or human beings, among other things. Geneviève and others were thunderstruck by what they saw upon their arrival, and most noted that these women’s eyes had lost all expression.
Geneviève detailed the air-raid siren, a sanitized version of the searches, the showers, and being sent to quarantine in “Prise dans une souricière,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 46 (1972): 29–31. Her descriptions of the searches and showers are consistent with other resister testimonies, some of which go into further detail about aggressive searches between the legs with dirty speculums, head shavings, and snide comments made by German personnel. Morrison wrote about how the arrival impacted new prisoners in Ravensbrück, 31–36.
Morrison described the camp administration in Ravensbrück, 19–28.
Helm wrote about Binz and Bräuning, Ravensbrück, loc. 8,096.
Nanette said she shared a top bunk with Geneviève in “Souvenirs,” Voix et Visages, March–April 2002, 14.
beet soup: Helm, Ravensbrück, loc. 7,537.
Germaine told Lacouture about her reunion with her mother and her mother’s excitement about German cities in ruin in Le témoignage, 167.
Morrison covered some of the humorous nicknames French prisoners gave each other in Ravensbrück, 33. He also talked about their concern for fashion and the ways they passed time on page 118.
Geneviève told Glorion about Germaine’s lectures about the concentration camp system in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 43.
Helm wrote about the French not taking orders seriously in Ravensbrück, loc. 7,554.
Helm looked at the morning roll call routine and the 27,000’s confinement to some of the worst barracks in the camp in Ravensbrück, loc. 7,717–830. Morrison also wrote about the daily routine in Ravensbrück, 110–16.
Morrison wrote about the treatment of French prisoners in Ravensbrück, 94–98.
Geneviève wrote about the history of youth at the camp in “La condition des enfants au camp de Ravensbrück,” Révue d’histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale, no. 45 (January 1962): 71–84.
Germaine told Weschler in Sisters in Resistance that prisoners used to stand next to her at roll call to hear lectures about the origins of mankind.
Geneviève said that she would lose herself in the sky at roll call in André Bendjebbar’s “Geneviève de Gaulle parle,” Quatre visages de la France, (Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, 2015), Kindle ed., loc. 902–13.
Geneviève wrote about work conditions in “Prise dans une souricière,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle 45 (1972): 31.
Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt wrote about her workday with Geneviève and efforts to escape bad work squads in “Forgive, Don’t Forget,” 7.
Jacqueline and Geneviève told Weschler about sharing a bunk in Sisters in Resistance.
Geneviève talked about how much she disliked loading coal cars in Sisters in Resistance. She wrote about her sleigh dream in Dawn of Hope, loc. 293–97.
“Awake O sleeping hearts”: Anthonioz, Dawn of Hope, loc. 112.
Anise Postel-Vinay told Weschler about Geneviève’s washroom speech about her uncle and later elaborated on it for me in a January 9, 2016, interview in Paris and then in a letter dated April 7, 2016. “It seemed that we had received the same sort of education,” Anise explained. “We were Christian and respected the church and its priests. But we also respected other religions and people.” Germaine told Lacouture about her gratitude for Geneviève’s lecture about her uncle in Le témoignage.
Geneviève wrote about some of the little things that kept prisoners going in Dawn of Hope, loc. 108, 282–86. Anise told Weschler about how Germaine used to share her bread with her in Sisters in Resistance. Jacqueline wrote about stealing yarn, socks, and clothes to help fellow prisoners stay warm in “Surviving Ravensbrück.”
Geneviève shared the horror of the uniform workshop in Dawn of Hope, loc. 88–100.
Geneviève wrote about Vlasty hearing about the liberation of Paris in Dawn of Hope, loc. 266–70.
Anise recounted what it took to save Geneviève from the Syllinka work group in Vivre, 74–77.
Geneviève talked about her time in the rabbit skins in Dawn of Hope, loc. 327–35.
Geneviève recalled her interaction with Suhren in “Le chantage d’Himmler,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 46 (1972): 27–29.
En ce temps là: De Gaulle obtained German documents that illustrated the backroom dealing about General de Gaulle’s niece: “Quand Himmler proposait l’échange de la nièce du général de Gaulle contre un consul S.S.,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 60 (1973): 27.
Geneviève wrote about her changed circumstances in Dawn of Hope, loc. 354–65.
En ce temps là: De Gaulle wrote about the continued correspondence regarding Geneviève de Gaulle in no. 60 (1973): 27–31.
Geneviève celebrated her birthday in Dawn of Hope, loc. 52–56.
Geneviève wrote about being taken to the bunker in Dawn of Hope, loc. 31–35, 45–52, 56–65, 68–76. She also wrote about it in “Le chantage d’Himmler,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 46 (1972): 27–29, 30.
Germaine Tillion wrote about the NN block in Ravensbrück (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1988), 164–66, and detailed the discussions with Buber-Neumann on pages 64–69.
Morrison wrote about punishments in the bunker in Ravensbrück, 231–33.
Tillion covered the Rabbits and the secret correspondence in Ravensbrück, 165–74. Anise Postel-Vinay also remembered them in Vivre, 59–66. Geneviève wrote about them in Dawn of Hope, loc. 35–46.
Jacqueline Pery d’Alincourt wrote about the Czech prisoners who told her where Geneviève was in “Forgive, Don’t Forget,” 7.
Geneviève wrote about learning that she would not be punished in Dawn of Hope, loc. 128–51, 174–86.
Geneviève wrote about Christmas in the bunker in Dawn of Hope, loc. 190–98, 214–48. Morrison wrote about the 1944 Christmas celebrations in Ravensbrück, 267–70.
“Some of us thought we would get caught”: Marthe, “Ravensbrück 25 December 1944,” Voix et Visages 59 (November–December 1957): 3.
Margarete Buber-Neumann wrote about her parcels in Under Two Dictators: Prisoner of Stalin and Hitler (London: Random House UK, 2008), 256.
Anise shared her memories of the end of 1944 in Vivre, 78–80.
Tillion wrote about the gas chamber and Mittwerda in Ravensbrück, 258–77; see also “Nazis’ Camp Data Bare Its Killings,” New York Times, January 1, 1945, 5. Morrison wrote about the gas chamber in Ravensbrück, 289–91.
Tillion reprinted a section of Verfügbar in Ravensbrück, 259.
Geneviève wrote about the crematorium smoke and her recurring dream of facing a tribunal in Dawn of Hope, loc. 449–65.
The following articles chronicled the fall of Bonny and Lafont: “Le brigade du crime: Bony et Lafont livraient à la Gestapo les patriotes françaises,” Ce Soir, September 5, 1944; “La rue Lauriston au travail,” Le Populaire, December 4, 1944, 1.; “Bonny précise comment fut arrêtée Mlle Geneviève de Gaulle,” Ce Soir, December 5, 1944, 2; “Bonny connaissait Geneviève de Gaulle,” Libération, December 9, 1944, 1.
General de Gaulle reassured the country in the following articles: “De Gaulle Hails Rebirth of France: Says Allied Aid Assures Big Army,” New York Times, January 1, 1945, 2; “Tolerance for Vichyites Seen,” New York Times, January 3, 1945, 5; “De Gaulle Cites Need for Order,” New York Times, January 16, 1945, 10.
These stories talk about the reprisals against collaborators: “French Continuing Purge of Traitors,” New York Times, January 9, 1945, 11; Le Monde is quoted in “Three Frenchmen Lynched in Prison,” New York Times, January 10, 1945, 12; “France Sentences Three FFI Officers,” New York Times, January 12, 1945, 5.
Geneviève wrote about her pleurisy attack, healing, and desire to see Monet’s paintings at the Orangerie in Dawn of Hope, loc. 430–48.
Geneviève wrote of her final moments in the camp in “Le chantage d’Himmler,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle 46 (1972): 31, and in Dawn of Hope, loc. 464–522.
Geneviève captured the details of her escape from Ravensbrück and first “La Marseillaise” in “Ma première Marseillaise,” en ce temps là: De Gaulle, no. 47 (1972): 27–31. Virginia d’Albert-Lake also wrote about the harrowing details of their exodus in An American Heroine in the French Resistance: The Diary and Memoir of Virginia d’Albert-Lake (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), 234–45.
Germaine wrote about protecting the Rabbits in Ravensbrück, 174–76.
Jacqueline wrote about hiding in “Forgive, Don’t Forget,” 7–9.
Anise Girard spoke with Weschler about Émilie Tillion’s end in Sisters in Resistance and wrote about it in Vivre, 80–87.
Margarete Buber-Neumann wrote about hiding Germaine in Under Two Dictators, 265–66.
Jacqueline chronicled her final moments before the camp’s liberation in “Forgive Don’t Forget,” 9–10. Anise also captured them in Vivre, 91–97. See also “L’expédition de sauvetage à Ravensbrück,” Voix et Visages 18 (December 1948): 1.
Micheline Maurel’s story is captured in her book An Ordinary Camp (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1958), 136–41.
Geneviève spoke about her postwar feelings in Dialogues, 119–22.
Neau-Dufour wrote about Geneviève’s shock in Switzerland in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 110.
Neau-Dufour recounted conversations between Geneviève and her uncle in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 114–18. Glorion shared details of Geneviève’s reunion with her uncle in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 58–59.
Clerc wrote about Hitler’s Mercedes in Les de Gaulle, 227–28.
Voix et Visages had frequent dispatches from the doctors ADIR had in its employ, and those professionals would give advice on how to tackle the various ailments the female detainees faced after May 1945. Some examples of these columns include (but are not limited to): “L’Obésité des femmes déportées rapatriées,” Voix et Visages 2 (August–September 1946): 4; “Chronique du docteur,” Voix et Visages 4 (November 1946) 4; “Chronique du docteur,” Voix et Visages 5 (January 1947): 7.
Henri Frenay wrote about some of the difficulties of repatriation in The Night Will End (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976).
Historian Philippe Mezzasalma covered the beginnings of ADIR in “L’ADIR, ou une certaine histoire de la déportation des femmes en France,” Materiaux pour l’histoire de notre temps 69 (2003): 49–60.
Michèle Moët-Agniel’s account of her postwar circumstances come from an author interview on January 9, 2016, and a follow-up e-mail dated February 4, 2016.
“I am not saying it was always easy”: Geneviève sat for an interview with Le Patriote Résistant in June 1986.
Voix et Visages always listed information on its teas, talks, and concerts. Two examples: “Les conférences du Foyer,” Voix et Visages 1 (June 1946): 2; “Notre Foyer,” Voix et Visages 3 (October 1946): 3.
“We sought out other camp survivors”: Anise told Weschler about deportees’ need to find kindred spirits after the war in Sisters in Resistance.
Voix et Visages ran recurring stories on the paperwork women needed to submit in order to be considered for resister/deportee benefits. It also ran stories on what paperwork women needed to file in order get assistance if a loved one hadn’t returned from the war. See “L’activité du service social,” Voix et Visages 1 (June 1946): 3; “État-civil de non-rentrés,” Voix et Visages 1 (June 1946): 4; among others.
For background on Bernard Anthonioz, see Bernard Anthonioz, ou la liberté de l’art (Paris: Adam Biro, 1999). Also see Neau-Dufour, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 126–27.
Anise Postel-Vinay wrote about Germaine’s work on Ravensbrück in Vivre, 110–12.
Anise wrote about traveling with Geneviève in Vivre, 107–9.
Françoise Robin Zavadil wrote about the rest homes in “Maisons d’accueil en Suisse,” Voix et Visages 275 (March–April 2002): 13.
“A look shared”: Geneviève wrote about the duties of their return in “Le Retour,” Voix et Visages 1 (June 1946): 1.
Description of women’s first chance to vote in France from “Record French Poll as Women Vote for 1st Time,” Dundee Courier, October 22, 1945, 3; See also “Vote Today to Set Future of France,” New York Times, October 21, 1945, 1; “De Gaulle Scores Threefold Victory in French Election,” New York Times, October 23, 1945, 1; “French Reds Lead As Left Takes Over Charter’s Revision,” New York Times, October 23, 1945, 1; “De Gaulle Plans Unity Government,” New York Times, October 24, 1945, 9.
Account of Geneviève’s speech reported in “Au Meeting de Gentilly: Consécration Populaire de l’Amitié Française,” December, 1945.
Although she did not write about it in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, Glorion told me in an interview that Geneviève and Bernard were not only deeply in love but also partners in every sense of the word. Geneviève did not want her to include details of their love story in her book because, she told her, “no one is interested in that.” Isabelle Gaggini, Geneviève’s daughter, also told me that her parents had a strong partnership based on mutual affection, respect, and long-held beliefs. They were their own people, but together they made each other stronger. Neau-Dufour wrote about Geneviève and Bernard falling in love in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 127–30.
Jacqueline d’Alincourt told Weschler about her postwar life in Sisters in Resistance.
Anise wrote about meeting André Postel-Vinay in Vivre, 38–41.
Neau-Dufour wrote about Geneviève’s wedding and the argument between Charles de Gaulle and his wife in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 130–31.
Anise talked about imitating Geneviève in an author interview on January 9, 2016.
Voix et Visages expressed outrage that only twenty-two people were being tried for war crimes in “Le procès de Ravensbrück,” Voix et Visages 4 (November 1946): 1.
Suhren’s escape was reported in “German Escapes as Trial Nears,” New York Times, December 1, 1946.
Geneviève wrote about the 1946 Ravensbrück trial in “L’Allemagne jugée par Ravensbrück,” which was reprinted in Anthonioz and Tillion, Dialogues, 143–58. Germaine Tillion covered the trial in “Le procès de Ravensbrück,” Voix et Visages 5 (January 1947): 1, and “Le procès des assassins à Ravensbrück,” Voix et Visages 7 (March 1947): 1.
ADIR called on its members to send in written testimony for the next trials, giving them specific instructions on how to submit their information in “Le prochain procès de criminels de guerre de Ravensbrück,” Voix et Visages 8 (June 1947): 1. The group continued to cover trials in successive issues, including Geneviève’s front-page report on Fritz Suhren in the May/June 1950 issue.
Neau-Dufour wrote about Geneviève’s family life in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz (131–33), basing some of her detail on interviews with family members. Isabelle Anthonioz-Gaggini captured what it was like to have resisters who were like family to her and her brothers in Anthonioz and Tillion, Dialogues, 13–18.
General de Gaulle’s words, penned by Malraux, were reprinted in Lacouture’s De Gaulle: The Ruler, 1945–1970 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1993), 137–38.
Neau-Dufour talked about how Geneviève and Bernard chose to get involved with the RPF in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 134–36.
In its account of ADIR’s first General Assembly, Voix et Visages wrote about the need to raise membership fees and the high costs of administrative costs and social services: January 1947, no. 5, 3–4.
“That is why ADIR was born”: “11 novembre,” Voix et Visages 9 (November 1947): 1.
Michèle Moët-Agniel shared her postwar story in an author interview on January 9, 2016.
Voix et Visages chronicled the lodging trouble and disorganization in the February/March 1948 issue, no. 11–12, pp. 3–4.
By 1951 the health and wellness of ADIR’s members . . . and accounts of cutbacks: “Rapport moral,” Voix et Visages 28 (March/April 1951): 3.
Geneviève called out the ADIR membership for not being active in Voix et Visages 32 (January/February 1952): 1.
On the Rabbits: “L’indemnisation des victimes des expériences humaines,” Voix et Visages 33 (March/April 1952): 3–4; “Cobayes,” Voix et Visages 73 (March/April 1960): 1–2; “Cobayes,” Voix et Visages (May/June 1961): 4; “A Godmother to Ravensbrück Survivors,” http://connecticuthistory.org/a-godmother-to-ravensbruck-survivors/.
Anne’s death, Charles de Gaulle’s corresponding malaise, and his relationship with his brother Pierre are covered by Clerc in Les de Gaulle, 257–59, 264–66.
The decline of the RPF and Bernard’s entry into public service is chronicled in Neau-Dufour’s Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 137–39.
“She would say”: Anise recalled her close friendship with Geneviève in the Gobelins years in an author interview on January 9, 2016.
The women of ADIR wrote about when or whether they told their children about the camps in “Notre enquête,” Voix et Visages 51 (May/June 1956): 7.
Geneviève told Weschler in Sisters in Resistance about her little-by-little approach with her children.
Germaine wrote about Algeria in “L’Algérie en 1957,” Voix et Visages 55 (January/February 1957): 5–6.
Anise’s stance on the war in Algeria is spelled out and Geneviève accepts her resignation in Voix et Visages 82 (January/February 1962): 7.
General de Gaulle’s May 15, 1958, announcement that he was ready to take over the powers of the Republic was covered by United Press International in “De Gaulle Ready to Rule.” The story is located online: www.upi.com/Archives/1958/05/15/De-Gaulle-ready-to-rule/4611027740242/.
Geneviève said ADIR needed to take an issue in “certain human problems” in “Rentrée,” Voix et Visages 85 (July–November 1962): 1. She devoted the rest of that issue to hunger, which she had become exposed to in the Noisy-le-Grand slum.
In a January 9, 2016, author interview, Anise said that Geneviève and Bernard would pass Germaine’s reports from Algeria to General de Gaulle.
Neau-Dufour wrote about Tillion’s meeting with General de Gaulle in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 146–47.
Glorion wrote about Bernard and Geneviève’s entry into Malraux’s cabinet in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 69–70.
Deaths and hardship resulting from the “brutally cold winter of 1954” were dramatized in the 1989 French film Hiver 54, l’abbé Pierre, starring Claudia Cardinale.
The emergency housing proposal was debated and rejected on January 3, the same day the infant died in the cold. After that, Abbé Pierre wrote an open letter to housing minister Maurice Lemaire, which said, “Sir, the little baby . . . who died from the cold during the night of January 3, during the speech in which you rejected the emergency housing, will be buried on Thursday January 7, at 2 p.m. It would be nice for you to be with us during that time. We are not bad people.” Letter from Abbé Pierre to Maurice Lemaire, Le Figaro, January 5, 1954.
Lemaire attended the funeral, toured a makeshift encampment for the poor, and was shocked by what he saw. He pledged to have emergency housing ready by May. Three weeks later, the evicted woman was found dead in the street. “L’abbé Pierre réédite son appel du 1er fevrier 1954 en faveur des ‘couche-dehors,’” Le Monde, January 24, 2007.
Abbé Pierre is an icon in France. For more about his life and work, see Boris Simon, Abbé Pierre and the Ragpickers of Emmaus (New York: P. J. Kenedy, 1955); Frédéric Lenoir and Abbé Pierre, Why, Oh Why, My God: Meditations on Christian Faith and the Meaning of Life (Geneva: WCC Publications, 2007); Axelle Brodiez-Dolino, Emmaüs and Abbé Pierre: An Alternative Model of Enterprise, Charity and Society, trans. Alexandra Harwood (Paris: Les Presses des Sciences-Po, 2013).
“Tonight, in every town in France”: Call of Abbé Pierre, Radio Luxembourg, February 1, 1954. The next day, Le Figaro published the transcript of the appeal at Abbé Pierre’s request.
“I hope that this is the beginning of a war”: “L’insurrection de bonté à 60 ans,” Le Point, February 1, 2014; “Charlie Chaplin and the Homeless of Abbé Pierre,” Le Monde, October 16, 1954. After World War II, Charlie Chaplin became openly critical of capitalism and supportive of Soviet-American friendship groups at a time when Cold War tensions were on the rise. Conservative politicians considered his political views “dangerously progressive and amoral,” and the FBI began to investigate his ties to Communist groups. The English actor maintained that he wasn’t a Communist but a “peacemonger.” Yet his failure to pursue US citizenship and unabashed disapproval of the House Un-American Activities Committee led to cries for his deportation. He left America for Europe in 1953 and remained there for the last twenty-four years of his life. For more details, see Charles J. Maland, Chaplin and American Culture: The Evolution of a Star Image (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), 221–56.
In 1954, one Communist group awarded Chaplin a monetary peace prize, which the Tramp, in turn, signed over to Abbé Pierre. Chaplin told reporters outside of Hotel Crillon, “I thought it was normal that the money I received for the peace prize should go to help the underprivileged.” Abbé Pierre added, “By doing this, the man who all of his life wanted to embody ‘the little man,’ or the unhappy man became a beautiful symbol.” See “Charlie Chaplin et les sans-logis de l’abbé Pierre,” Le Monde, October 16, 1954.
The homes . . . were meant to be a temporary solution (and the following narrative about the Noisy encampment): The 2001 Claire Jeanteur documentary Le Camp de Noisy ou l’inversion du regard uses archival footage and interviews to tell the history of this camp and show how it played a pivotal role in several impoverished families’ long fight to have a better life.
Glorion wrote about Geneviève and Father Joseph’s first meeting in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 70–74.
He told her she could come whenever she wanted: Glorion captured this conflict in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 70.
In her memoir, Geneviève wrote, “There was always a little voice telling me not to get mixed up in this and another that explained that maybe it was not so bad to know about it. A few days later, I began to know about it” (Anthonioz, Le Secret de l’Espérance [Paris: Fayard, 2001], 19).
Readers get more of a sense of Geneviève’s independence and determination from historian Frédérique Neau-Dufour’s account of this same day in her 2004 book, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz. Neau-Dufour writes of the “echos” from the past that made her feel like this trip was something she needed to experience on her own. “She was the deportee who, deep within herself, felt something strong” (155). Although all accounts indicate that Geneviève went by herself, and felt it was something she needed to do, Geneviève has been quoted as saying that she didn’t actually make a connection between her experience at Ravensbrück and Noisy-le-Grand until she saw the camp (Anthonioz, Le Secret, 17). It’s worth noting that seeing Noisy-le-Grand was an overwhelming experience for any so-called outsider who walked through its gates, regardless of his or her life experience. In 1959 Elle writer Marlyse Schaeffer said it was like arriving at the “end of the world” (“1,000 enfants qui ne peuvent pas croire au Père Noël,” Elle, December 1958).
“This sign has been here for four years”: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 74. Glorion has also written widely about Father Joseph Wresinski and made two films about him. Joseph l’insoumis (2011) is a dramatized account of his life, while Joseph Wresinski: 50 ans de combat contre le misère (2008) is a documentary drawing on interviews and archival footage and papers. She is well known in France for her reporting on social issues.
“One family invited Father Joseph and Geneviève into their home” and the account of what Geneviève learned as she sipped coffee with them: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 75–77; Anthonioz, Le Secret, 15–17.
“I never imagined such distress”: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 77–78.
“I’m not sure when I became so lucky”: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 79.
Not everyone saw the camp the way Geneviève and Father Joseph did: Geneviève recalled some of her interactions with government officials on the priest’s behalf, saying that she either battled their perceptions of Joseph as a slum lord or of the camp’s inhabitants as dangerous and habitually drunk. As she fought plans to tear down the igloos and move the inhabitants elsewhere, she asked local officials, “Sir, could you please tell me why another department would take on these families that you have refused?” It was a polite and persuasive argument instrumental in preventing the demolition of the igloos. Put in the same position, her uncle would have probably thrown a fit in order to get the same result. Anthonioz, Le Secret, 31–33.
“If you raze these slums”: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 84.
“Few outsiders come to the camp”: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 85.
As much as she feared Malraux’s legendary temper: Anthonioz, Le Secret, 26–27.
saw that they took a toll on women and children: Neau-Dufour, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 168.
The Elle magazine article is widely referenced in works about Noisy-le-Grand, Father Joseph, and Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, but the vivid details of this piece are rarely shared. After several months of attempts to get my hands on this story, Véronique Davienne from the Center International Joseph Wresinski kindly provided me with a copy that she pulled from Geneviève’s own scrapbook. Marlyse Schaeffer, “1,000 enfants qui ne peuvent pas croire au Père Noël,” Elle, December 1958.
“Here, we will be able to discover our dignity”: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 87.
decorated with lithographs: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 88.
“The first woman who dared”: Neau-Dufour, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 169.
“She became a real friend”: Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 89; Neau-Dufour, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 170.
Geneviève opened her memoir Le Secret de l’espérance with her account of the igloo fire and the children’s funerals. Although she had been working with Father Joseph for at least a year and a half by then, this story became illustrative for her of the indignities and injustice faced by the poor and cemented her decision to fight for them full-time (Anthonioz, Le Secret, 13–15). Glorion captures the off-color dialogue that Geneviève did not wish to include in her story (Glorion, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 90).
Francine de la Gorce was interviewed by the French journal Revue Projet a year after Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz’s death. “Itinéraire: Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz,” Revue Projet, February 1, 2003.
A few days later: Anthonioz, Le Secret, 27–28.
“I could not help but think”: Anthonioz, Le Secret, 21.
“If you wanted to destroy such misery”: Anthonioz, Le Secret, 25–26.
Geneviève describes the Christmastime walk around the camp in sweet and simple prose (Anthonioz, Le Secret, 28–30).
“Despite the work”: Anthonioz, Le Secret, 39.
Clerc recounted Pierre’s death and Madeleine’s journey into the workforce in Les de Gaulle, 279–80.
Geneviève writes about her experience with ATD Quart Monde in her memoir Le Secret de l’espérance. Much of the initial narrative here is derived from those recollections.
Geneviève Tardieu shared her experience with ATD and in working with Geneviève de Gaulle in an author interview on January 7, 2016, in Pierrelaye, France.
Neau-Dufour conducted an interview with Michel Anthonioz about his parents’ night of worry in May 1968 in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 182. Geneviève gave Glorion her opinions about May 1968 in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 118.
On the defeat of de Gaulle’s referendum, “De Gaulle Loses, Quits,” Chicago Tribune, April 28, 1969, 1.
“An event the gravity of which”: BBC On This Day, “1969: President de Gaulle resigns.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/28/newsid_2500000/2500927.stm.
The story of how Charles’s hermetic existence kept him from Michel’s wedding is captured by Clerc in Les de Gaulle, 302–3.
“You must also know that I think of you often”: Anthonioz, Le Secret, 76.
Voix et Visages’ special Charles de Gaulle issue appeared in November 1970 and reproduced many of his speeches and texts. The general’s funeral instructions were reprinted in the New York Times, November 11, 1970, 19. Details about the funeral were included in “Pompidou and Chaban-Delmas Fly to Colombey and Pay Their Last Respects to de Gaulle,” New York Times, November 12, 1970, 1.
Geneviève wrote about her heart attack and Father Joseph’s death in her ATD memoir.
Neau-Dufour wrote about Bernard’s death and its impact on Geneviève in Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 204–5.
“It was unbelievable to think that [ATD] could last 60 years” and the quotes that follow: Geneviève Tardieu, author interview, January 7, 2016, Pierrelaye, France.
“When the last among you has died”: Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, quoting André Malraux, in “Assemblée Général du 15 avril 1978,” Voix et Visages 161 (April/May 1978): 1.
“In a period of economic difficulty”: Neau-Dufour, Geneviève de Gaulle Anthonioz, 188–89.
“Faced with indifference”: François Hollande speech, May 27, 2015, Paris. The text of the discourse is located on the Élysée Palace website at www.elysee.fr/declarations/article/ceremonie-d-hommage-solennel-de-la-nation-a-pierre-brossolette-genevieve-de-gaulle-anthonioz-germaine-tillion-et-jean-zay-pantheon-3/.